Toyota Avalon 2008-2010

Comments

Lots of comments about 2008 Avalon lites going out. Lost both of mine last week on a trip which seems highly suspect of something odd at 60K miles. Dealer replacing them for $240 total (parts and labor) so I may actually be lucky on that. Seems odd tho.

We just picked up a "new" 2008 Avalon in Dallas. We drove it last night and discovered the High Beam lights do not come on when engaged. The dashboard does indicate the switch has been engaged but the lights themselves are not coming on. Any suggestions short of going to the dealership? The car has 43,000 miles. Is this still covered by the warranty?

Mine was not covered by my extended warranty but I still got off cheaper than most I have heard of with that problem on this forum. $240 at dealer for parts and labor. Lamps are really expensive. They should not be going out at 43K or in my case 65K in the first place. However the dealer did a few other things at no charge (yeah right) that helped the experience a little bit. Local garage near office did not want to get into the light set up. Good luck.

Hello, we bought our used 2008 Avalon 1 yr. ago with the extended warranty. Recently, the High beams went out as in everybody elses. From what I have read this is a "common problem" for this yr Avalon, prob a manufacturer problem. We took it to Toyota, they said our high beams had "shattered" it was $2400.00 to fix the assembly or $100.00 for each light bulb. They said the assembly needs to be fixed. This is not covered by Toyota warranty. We chose to take it to our mechanic who put in new bulbs for $45.00 ea. From what I have read most people with this prob are getting nowhere and they have gone as high as Toyota corp with good results. That will be our next step. This prob is so common and expensive to fix that Toyota changed the assembly the next year for 2009 Avalons. Good Luck!Sandy

Thanks. We're taking it to the Consumer Product Safety Commission and the Transportation Safety Administration. Can you imagine driving at night on the interstate and all the lights go out? This is not just an issue with the high beams. We're also in contact with a class action attorney who has been involved in some high-profile suits. If anyone is interested in participating (no cost for doing so), reply here.

Since this is the place where people find out about problems and manufacturer reluctance to be honest and handle engineering foul ups. Why would Edmunds restrict discussion about legal actions against market dishonesty. Unless, Edmunds chooses to be a part of the problem instead of the part of the solution. What is Edmunds position on honorable behavior?

There are a number of reasons why it's not permitted within the forums. You can do just about anything else regarding getting action from a dealership or manufacturer. Instead of going into all of the reasons, I'll just simply say that it's prohibited by our Membership Agreement.

If you REALLY think that a class action lawsuit will get you resolution, I suggest checking out the results of previous class action lawsuits against manufacturers. First, it will take several years to be resolved. Second, the outcome for consumers is likely to be a choice between two options: 1) take the vehicle in to get the issue fixed at no cost, or 2) get a $500 coupon toward the purchase of a Toyota. Half of the consumers in the class will likely no longer own the vehicle by the time it's resolved. The lawyers' compensation will be more of a financial windfall. Much more.

If you want real resolution, you're better off continuing to post complaints - manufacturers have taken action based on reports across the internet. You're also better off working with your dealership and/or personal legal counsel if you truly seek to get the problems resolved in a manner that benefits you.

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Here's the disappointment. The dealerships hold us hostage and usually NOTHING happens, they put off everything and make it IMPOSSIBLE to resolve issues, they simply wear you down. Unless you have lots of time you end up paying for the repair yourself.Toyota has been EXTREMELY disappointing to me as I have an 07 Avalon LTD, Oil Hose connector broke, windshield washer reservoir failed, electric sunshade (rear) broke, now rack & Pinion steering going out!! they run you around and wear you down with BS.

I sympathize as someone who has spent many hours and hundreds of dollars dealing with a clearly defective headlight design in the '08 Avvie--esp the HID lights.

But...As host Kirstie had pointed out in earlier post, class action lawsuits are useless, and IMHO are a huge scam perpetuated by the legal industry. As an individual participant in a class action, the best you can hope for is a "gift certificate" for $50 towards the purchase of your next Toyota, or some other equally stupid, meaningless compensation, assuming you win the suit.

The ONLY ones who profit are the lawyers, who run to the bank with the 30% of the settlement worth millions, laughing at the suckers who initiated the suit in the first place. What a joke.

I'm with Kirstie. Apply leverage where you can, on a local level. Keep your expectations reasonable. And buy a Ford next time.

Guys- My original post was done out of being momentarily irritated and never intended for action. Too much a pain in the butt to deal with lawyers. Instead I had two high-beam light bulbs replaced at the dealership at no labor charge and worked the bigger issue as a nice guy with my dealership. They took it to Toyota Regional which agreed to pay half the cost of replacing the lighting system resulting in my cost being less than $225. My system doesn't sync with the wheel direction which must be the reason it's not as expensive as others quoted. Heck of a lot cheaper and less stress than a lawsuit which I agree is not productive.

The summary of the many posts here should be this: vote with your wallet. I grew up on Ford and GM products. Bought them, drove them, raced them, etc..... till the mid 1990's. At that point the quality had dropped off so I went foreign, bought a Honda v6.. last American purchase was a Ford T-bird in '95. It's been Honda, Toyota and Nissan in our extended family ever since. Three Avalons (to stay on topic) so far, six v6 Hondas and two Altimas. All have been wonderful.

American makes have made a recent comeback in both style and dependability, yes. But it will take a lot to get me back in an Ford or GM product. The Japanese names are simply too good overall from my experience. Would not touch a new Benz or a BMW either although some models are better than average in reliability. Again, if you don't like it... don't buy it..... they will make it better or go out of business.

The local dealer quoted me a price of $265.00 each to replace the hi beam bulbs on my daughter's 2008 Avalon. And $1,465.00 each to replace the entire headlight assembly. I purchased bulbs from O'Reilly's for $50.00 each and it takes about 5 minutes to replace them. The dealer was just trying to rip me off.

I also noticed that one of the lo beam lights works intermittently. Don't know if it is the bulb or the power supply.

slharp: you should go back and read the series of posts that I and others have made concerning the dreaded, POS HID headlights (assuming you have a Limited with the HID bulbs). Intermittent failure is almost inevitably a sign of impending bulb failure. Unfortunately, unlike the high beams, the HID bulbs are extremely difficult to replace. There have been some who have done it, but they describe a process well beyond someone like me. I have replaced mine twice in my '08 Limited. Each time I've had my buddy, who owns a body shop, replace the bulbs. He found the easiest way to do it was to drop the front bumper (!). Fortunately, he charged me only around $100 to install, on top of the roughly $50 for each bulb (purchased online--second time I bought name brand bulbs as the first set of no names I bought lasted only about a year). That was MUCH better than the obscene $800 my Toyota dealer wanted to do the job. The HID bulbs are a well-known weak point for these Avvy's, and one of many reasons I won't be buying a Toyota again.

I have an '08 Avalon Touring (150k) with HID bulbs and have replaced the hi-beams 3 times (found a lower cost bulb on internet) and recently had to replace the D4R HID bulb-again there are lower cost alternatives (www.hidnation.com). It was not that difficult to replace. You must remove the battery and loosen the fuse box and then it is as easy as any other car.

I hope they do, but I have little optimism. It's clearly a problem endemic to HID equipped Avalons, and many others have had similar problems, with little interest on Toyota's part other than to offer to replace them at $800 a pop.

I had similar experience: replaced both HID bulbs, only to have them go out about a year later. Those bulbs were "no-name" bulbs purchased online. The second time I specifically purchased Phillips bulbs hoping that perhaps they will last longer. Tell you in a few years.

I have posted repeatedly here regarding my problems with my '08 Limited headlights. Am on third set of HID low beams, second set of halogen high beams. In three years, maybe $1000 so I can see at night. Versus, say, the $0 I've spent on my '07 Suburban's lights to date.

So today, the crowning blow. My Avalon headlights have become misaligned, aiming almost straight down, so the low beams focus about 5 feet in front of the car. Basically impossible to see with them, so I have to drive with high beams constantly, annoying the heck out of oncoming traffic. This happened once before, and they "did an adjustment" while under warranty. Today I get call from dealer--left headlight assembly is broken, can't be adjusted, and installation of new unit will set me back $1300. Oh, and BTW, the right high beam is dead.

I am escalating to toyota customer service hoping to get some help in reducing costs. Pray for me, this has been an ongoing nightmare!

We purchased a used 08 Avalon Limited with 9000 miles on it about a month ago. We just lost both of our high beams . They shattered. I just called the local dealer and was told a bulletin was just issued on this. They will replace the high beams for FIVE years or 70,000 miles. He said they are extending the waranty on the HIGH beams. Hope this helps a few of you.

YAY Mookie! I just called and verified with my local dealer here in Phoenix!

We purchased an 08 Limited with 19,000 miles in July. The first time I used the high beams I noticed one light out. I took a look at it in the daytime and saw all the little pieces where the bulb had exploded. I looked online and found this thread, which really got me concerned. It also provided a wealth of information!

We took the car in to the dealer in late July. They checked it out and verified that ours was one of the cars affected by this problem; however, since it was over 3 years since purchased new they were going to make us pay $2600 to replace the headlight assemblies. We couldn't afford that, and since it truly is a manu/design fault, I had no plans of paying for it myself (although I fully intended to see it fixed).

We appealed to corporate, who basically shrugged us off. We didn't escalate the issue, and due to a hectic schedule over the past couple months we didn't persue it further. I bought a set of halogen high beams for $35 and put them in myself in 10 minutes.

Last week, while driving home on the freeway at night, my right HDI low-beam flickered and went out! I know from these forums that you can sometimes get them to come on again by turning them off and back on again, and it worked. Then last night it started flickering again, this time in a parking lot. I repeated the procedure, which stabilized the light until I got home. But it's obvious that these things are going to go out soon, and the helpless feeling that you get knowing that you can't count on your car to light the way is absolutely not what I expected from an Avalon. I loved my '06.

Ironically, I had awoken this morning and started preparing an official letter to corporate. I realized that having to replace the headlight assemblies was going to cause an undue financial hardship, and recognized the need to appeal to the local media for donations. I giggled as I thought of the looks on the faces of the Customer Service reps as they escalated the issue again and again, nobody wanting to own it and nobody having the authority to make it go away. A 3-year old car with faulty $2600 headlights that the company refuses to replace is a sad thing indeed... and the last thing corporate wants is someone appealing to their community for help fixing Toyota's mistake!

But now, thanks to Mookie, I have the news... the headlights are covered! And I verified it with the local (Phoenix, AZ) dealer. They are covering it now for 5 years or 70,000 miles.

Call your local Toyota dealership with issues of headlights in your Avalon and have them reference TSB 0044-10. They replaced both of my headlight assemblies free of charge. Warranty for headlights now extends for 5 years, 70,000 miles. I have a 2008 Avalon, Limited, and the high beam bulb, daytime running lights, and auto leveler actuator all went out on driver's side.

I notified Lexus of this problem back in ~'01. The glass encapsulation of my high beam bulbs actually MELTED as a result of the EXTREME heat build up due to running the halogen bulbs at sub-standard levels, <6 volts for/as DRLs.

Dannyb3: wow, that's hugely helpful. I've been procrastinating on calling Toyota Cust Svc to fight it out over whether they would reduce the cost of replacing both headlight assemblies (at $1300 each) since the autolevelers have gone out. If this works I'll be all smiles. Thanks for the info!